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Spontaneous Abortion and Maternal-Fetal Conflict

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Miscarriage

Definition

Unexpected loss of a fetus before the 20th week of gestation

Introduction

Evolutionary conflict occurs when natural selection acts in opposing directions on different genes involved in an interaction (Burt and Trivers 2008). Conflict can be found at all levels of organization, from conflict between species, to conflict between individuals within a species, to conflict within an individual itself. Most of these forms of conflict revolve around competition for resources and differences in optimal resource allocation among individuals. Between genetic relatives, what is beneficial to one relative may not be beneficial, and may even be detrimental, to another. This situation occurs when there is an unequal probability that genes from one individual will be shared with another. For example, if a mother invests abundant resources in one embryo, it benefits both that embryo and, due to shared genes, the mother herself; however it will detract from the mother’s...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Jennifer Kotler

Authors
  1. Jennifer Kotler
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jennifer Kotler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

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Kotler, J. (2016). Spontaneous Abortion and Maternal-Fetal Conflict. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3596-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3596-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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